The child, identified by officials as Lalita, had to follow a strict diet because of her medical condition and was

obliged to take insulin injections.

Shocked neighbours and local children laid wreaths and bouquets of flowers and messages on the ground below the child's home, a bleak apartment block on the outskirts of Lyon, France's third-largest city.

She would be on her own, she would play on her own, and when we would call her she would run away," said one local boy.

Evelyne Auriol, who works as a caretaker in the building where Lalita lived, knew her well:

"She was very nice, she was calm, she was a very calm child, the family was calm too, I would never have imagined that possible of her, never, not one second would I have thought it possible that a little girl would throw herself from the fifth floor. It's inconceivable," she said.

"There is really no word for it. I don't know... it's awful," said another woman whose daughter was the same age and used to play with Lalita.

Psychological counselling has been offered to children at her school, teachers and city workers.